TSN 690 & Other Montreal sports media Thread VI

[Runner77]

Marinaro's soccer show begins with this: "I checked Twitter this morning and the big news was Juventus."

Well sure, it's a soccer show. What else could possibly be "big news", right Marinaro?

 

[Laurentide]

To this day I still couldn't tell you what city Juventus even plays in. I know it's in Italy but apart from that, I've got nothing. Couldn't even tell you their team colors or what their major sponsor is on the jerseys.

And I don't give a s*** either.

Someone needs to have a word in the shell-like ear of Bell Media management and ask them if they've checked Tony's ratings lately. If they bothered to check they'd probably send him a memo ordering him to can the soccer talk and get back to the topic that keeps the lights on at 690: Da Habs, baby. Da Habs.

 

[Runner77]

To this day I still couldn't tell you what city Juventus even plays in. I know it's in Italy but apart from that, I've got nothing. Couldn't even tell you their team colors or what their major sponsor is on the jerseys.

And I don't give a s*** either.

Someone needs to have a word in the shell-like ear of Bell Media management and ask them if they've checked Tony's ratings lately. If they bothered to check they'd probably send him a memo ordering him to can the soccer talk and get back to the topic that keeps the lights on at 690: Da Habs, baby. Da Habs.

Marinaro evidently did not get the memo.

And now he has a segment on the best motivational speech you've ever heard.

I have one and it's long overdue: "Marinaro, you're fired."

 

[Runner77]

Marinaro losing it, called a emailer "an idiot". The email claimed that Marinaro was hoping for the Alouettes to fold and by ricochet it would favor the Impact.

Missing Sheed36, he'd be all over this by now.

 

[lo striver]

I have one and it's long overdue: "Marinaro, you're fired."

That's too Trumpy, I prefer "You're gone!" + machine gun sound.

 

[Inkling]

Shut up Tony. You guys were having a good discussion over the future of the Alouettes and you just had to make it all about yourself. Classic narcissist. He lives for those trolls who send in texts giving him an excuse to rant and rave and talk about himself. It's not entertaining, it makes for horrible radio.

Since I'm tired about being negative all the time in this thread (it's summer so kind of easy to do), I will say that I appreciate Joey Alfieri's work on the station and he was the one person on the station whose takes about Manziel were pretty much spot on. Good interview with Oduro too.

 

[Laurentide]

That's too Trumpy, I prefer "You're gone!" + machine gun sound.

Ted Tevan. Now there was a guy who could entertain and inform.

 

[Laurentide]

Marinaro losing it, called a emailer "an idiot". The email claimed that Marinaro was hoping for the Alouettes to fold and by ricochet it would favor the Impact.

Missing Sheed36, he'd be all over this by now.

He wants the Alouettes not to fold but to remain bad. Then, when they're really desperate, they might give Tony's paesan Danny Maciocia the head coaching job. Marinaro has been openly lobbying on air for the Als to hire him for at least a couple of years now. But if no CFL team has seen fit to offer Maciocia a job despite his 2005 Grey Cup win, that should tell you something about how he's viewed around the league.

Maciocia is the Jean Perron of the CFL. He got lucky once.

 

[Runner77]

That's too Trumpy, I prefer "You're gone!" + machine gun sound.

Oh man, Ted Tevan. I miss him. Used to listen regularly, right until the closing moments when he'd say "we're out of racetrack."

My brother called in once and and got machined gun with chocolate bullets. Tevan liked callers that gave him a reason to use it.

My brother told the producer he wanted to talk about hunting. So he gets on air and complains to Tevan how there is no coverage about hunting.

So Tevan snaps back "Hunting what? Lions? Tigers?"

My brother answers "No, ducks." And proceeds to quack incessantly. He had an ability to perfectly reproduce a duck's sound, so it added realism to the process.

Tevan let him quack for several seconds, whereupon the magic words we'd been waiting for, came up: "You're gonnnnnnnnnnne!!!!" Followed by the chocolate bullets.

Good times.

 

[Runner77]

Ted Tevan. Now there was a guy who could entertain and inform.

Remember his classic lines?

"McGarrety, get me some women on the line?"

And then he had that clip of a sultry woman's voice: "Ted, let me rub your temples. See, there's nothing to worry about."

He always had some go-to expressions like "the game of life" and "have you been to savvy street."

There would always be parade and fanfare sounds in the days when Montreal teams would win something. Never thought that would end.

 

[Laurentide]

I remember a time in the 80's when a suicidal woman called the show and he spent the next couple of hours talking her off the ledge. The station played that song from "Cats" on a continuous loop for most of that show.

 

[Runner77]

Shut up Tony. You guys were having a good discussion over the future of the Alouettes and you just had to make it all about yourself. Classic narcissist. He lives for those trolls who send in texts giving him an excuse to rant and rave and talk about himself. It's not entertaining, it makes for horrible radio.

Since I'm tired about being negative all the time in this thread (it's summer so kind of easy to do), I will say that I appreciate Joey Alfieri's work on the station and he was the one person on the station whose takes about Manziel were pretty much spot on. Good interview with Oduro too.

Alfieri was really good on that week that he spent with Melnick recently. They ought to bring him in as a regular rather than as just a correspondent.

 

[Laurentide]

Remember his classic lines?

"McGarrety, get me some women on the line?"

And then he had that clip of a sultry woman's voice: "Ted, let me rub your temples. See, there's nothing to worry about."

He always had some go-to expressions like "the game of life" and "have you been to savvy street."

There would always be parade and fanfare sounds in the days when Montreal teams would win something. Never thought that would end.

How about the time he called one of the Alouettes players in their hotel room on air and some random chick answered the phone? (I'm thinking Mike Widger, maybe?)

 

[Runner77]

I remember a time in the 80's when a suicidal woman called the show and he spent the next couple of hours talking her off the ledge. The station played that song from "Cats" on a continuous loop for most of that show.

I don't remember the woman but there was this man who called with maybe 10 or 15 minutes left to the show (which as regular listeners know, ended at 1:00 AM) and told Ted how this was going to be his last call.

Ted pressed him and asked what he meant by that and the caller admitted he would put an end to his life. So Tevan did the humane thing to do and extended that call as long as he could. He distracted the caller, asked him if he had siblings, got him to talk about anything.

I remember the call went past 1:00 AM and we had no idea when the call would be dropped. The caller would occasionally get agitated and say how it was enough and would want to hang up, but Tevan hung tough. He then had a brilliant idea. He asked the caller to go to the nearest window and describe the scene. He got the caller to provide enough details about what he was seeing to narrow down his location. Meantime he had the cops working on it.

Finally, around 45 minutes past 1 AM (as I recall), we hear a knock at the caller's residence. He tells Tevan to hold on, he says someone is at the door. Just as he opens the door, the cops rush in and grab him. And if I'm not mistaken, one of the cops took the phone and told Tevan that the situation was now under control. Just riveting.

 

[Laurentide]

Classic Tevan.

 

[Runner77]

How about the time he called one of the Alouettes players in their hotel room on air and some random chick answered the phone? (I'm thinking Mike Widger, maybe?)

I don't remember that, but there were quite a few zany moments. Did she say anything compromising?

Can't be worse then when the Als had signed The Ordinary Superstar and several other NFL standouts and they had a female medic on duty, doing the pre-season medicals. Let's just say the players were very happy to see her, so much so that what she saw, made one of the local papers.

 

[Runner77]

Classic Tevan.

Neat. I didn't realize they had such a long segment on YouTube. "The number to call is 790-no-no-no-no."

Looking at the caption from the YouTube link, interesting to see that his son Jay is the one who made the clip available.

 

[Laurentide]

Oh man, Ted Tevan. I miss him. Used to listen regularly, right until the closing moments when he'd say "we're out of racetrack."

My brother called in once and and got machined gun with chocolate bullets. Tevan liked callers that gave him a reason to use it.

My brother told the producer he wanted to talk about hunting. So he gets on air and complains to Tevan how there is no coverage about hunting.

So Tevan snaps back "Hunting what? Lions? Tigers?"

My brother answers "No, ducks." And proceeds to quack incessantly. He had an ability to perfectly reproduce a duck's sound, so it added realism to the process.

Tevan let him quack for several seconds, whereupon the magic words we'd been waiting for, came up: "You're gonnnnnnnnnnne!!!!" Followed by the chocolate bullets.

Good times.

Here's a clip with the machine gun schtick included. Pass it on to your brother.

 

[Runner77]

Here's a clip with the machine gun schtick included. Pass it on to your brother.

"You can't guess on this show. There are impressionable minds."

To think that Marinaro tries so desperately to copy his mannerisms and keeps falling way short. Including Ted going ballistic.

"Instead of saying I don't know, is it wrong for an open liner, a communicator of my status, to say I don't know." The questions that were left open-ended in an era where there was no Google. Maybe if someone was lucky, they'd have the Brittanica Encyclopedia handy.

"The school of life. The school of dramatic life."

That caller was quite slow. "Show me a rose or show me a storm at sea. Show me a rose or leave me alone. You're gonnnnnnnnnnnnne!!!"

Followed by the classic sultry female voice recording: "Ted, do you want me to rub your temples? That's it, relax. That's it, now lean your head back and I'll rub your temples. That's it, nice and easy. See? There's nothing to get excited about."

Good segment, brought back a lot of memories. I'll pass this on to my brother, he'll love it. Thanks for this.

 

[lo striver]

Good segment, brought back a lot of memories. I'll pass this on to my brother, he'll love it. Thanks for this.

yeah, great segment. don't forget to tell your brother that he is a mooch.

 

[Runner77]

yeah, great segment. don't forget to tell your brother that he is a mooch.

He knows.

It's actually a badge of honor for those not in the know.

 

[Runner77]

Interacting with John Lennon in another thread, we were discussing Dan Robertson and how he and I enjoyed listening to him earlier this summer when he was a sit-in during several afternoon shows.

If Robertson were amenable or available, they ought to replace one of their regular juveniles with Robertson as soon as the hockey season is over.

 

[Runner77]

One thing about Tevan, his voice and mannerisms commanded attention. Listening now, I remember what I was thinking then -- I valued the time when he was on and was lucky enough to understand that he was special. He had the kind of wisdom that vastly outdistanced the world of sports and it was the little pearls that he'd throw in there, that added enjoyment. And then, he went ballistic and used soundtracks that were hilarious.

You realize you're in the face of greatness when you listen to him several years later and it doesn't sound dated. Too bad we don't have this kind of broadcaster any longer.



And this one ends with that infamous "Good Night" ditty by Shirley Temple. So many memories.

 

[Runner77]

The stories of Irvin's irascibility are numerous. At the end of the day he's just not a nice person. If you're a colleague it's fine. If he perceives you to be beneath him he will treat you like you're something he discovered on the sole of his shoe.

I have a friend who worked as a parking lot attendant at Alexis Nihon Plaza back in the 70's where Irvin would park his car on his way to the Forum. I also know a guy who worked at the country club on the West Island where Irvin was a member. Both of them have stories about what an a-hole he was. I also have a friend who's mother used to work at the same company as Irvin back in the late 50's before he got into broadcasting. He was really full of himself and never missed an opportunity to pull the "Do you know who my father is?" line. He lorded his reflected celebrity over everyone.

I have only met him once, at an official event for the all star game in Vancouver where he signed my Forum seat. He was pleasant and personable. We talked about the ice storm which had recently occurred and he told me about how long his house was out of power and other bits of small talk. But he was being paid to be there so he was "on". You weren't seeing the real him. I'm sure that had I intercepted him on his way back to his hotel and asked for his autograph he'd have just as likely told me to f-off.

But despite all of this, his voice, along with Danny Gallivan's, was the soundtrack of my young life. And for all his faults as a person when it comes to broadcasting he was just better than anyone out there today.

I knew Irvin had a temper but had no idea he was such a despicable human being. He sure covered it well during public events. I too ended up meeting him at one of those sports fundraisers that used to be popular in those days. I managed a pic with Wayne Gretzky and another with both Irvin and Reusch and remember Irvin joking "you shouldn't be taking photos with us, we just do the reporting."

If anyone else had encounters or anecdotes about Dick Irvin or even Ron Reusch, please feel free to share.

Talk about completely full of themselves sportscasters, do you remember Jim Bay? He was a towering physical presence doing CBC sportscasts around the same time that Irvin was on CFCF doing sportscasts but was a complete asshole in public. The type of guy who was so full of himself, he felt that he was superior on account of being on TV.

 

[Runner77]

Another sign that 690 has nothing more to offer, they're replaying Tony Marinaro clips of all the stupidities he says during his show, in anticipation of the Marinaro roast in September.

In one of the clips, you hear Marinaro talking about several clementines on the table and how he's had three of them. And then you hear him gulping down a 4th and blurts out how the clementines he was having were "the end of the world."

It's so bad that it's laughable.

And then that putz of Tsalikis can't even get the date of the Marinaro roast straight. Good thing he works there.